VENEZUELA’S new cryptocurrency 'the petro' has proved so successful the country is already preparing a second digital currency named petro gold - or ‘petro oro’.

The pre-sale of the original petro raised £527million ($735 million) this week, prompting the Venezuelan government to prepare a second digital currency, which will be backed by gold and other precious metals.

Unlike petro gold, the first petro is pegged to the price of one barrel of Venezuelan oil.

Nicolas Maduro, the country’s president, said on Wednesday: “Next week I'm going to launch the petro gold, backed by gold, which is even more powerful, to strengthen the petro.”

One of the benefits of this new cryptocurrency is its ability to circumvent sanctions placed on the country by the US and Europe.

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Firms and investors from Brazil, Poland, Denmark, Honduras, Norway and the Middle East have all said they are happy to receive the petro as payment for goods or investing in the cryptocurrency.

But its introduction has been slated in the United States.

Last month, US Senators Marco Rubio and Robert Menendez both denounced Venezuela’s cryptocurrency in an open letter addressed to the US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

President Maduro has admitted one of the main aims of the petro, as well as the new petro gold, is to combat sanctions placed on the country.

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The petro is matched to the price of one oil barrel where as petro gold will be matched to gold

The petro is regulated by the Superintendence of Cryptocurrencies and Related Activities, as well as the Blockchain Observatory.

On the day of the petro release, President Maduro boastfully tweeted: “To big problems, great solutions! From the first minute the game started well, and we started winning: 4.777 billion yuan or 735 million dollars is the initial result of the operations of purchase intent of the Petro.

“While in many parts of the world new technologies increase the gaps between rich and poor, in Venezuela we make a technological revolution with socialist vision.

“A giant step towards prosperity and the new economy.”

Other nations are also toying with the idea of creating cryptocurrencies to circumvent sanctions.

President Putin of Russia has already commissioned a national cryptocurrency called the CryptoRuble.

Sergei Glazev, an economic adviser to the Russian leader, told a government meeting that the cryptocurrency would serve as a "useful tool" to evade western economic sanctions.

Mr Glazev said: "This instrument suits us very well for sensitive activity on behalf of the state. We can settle accounts with our counterparties all over the world with no regard for sanctions."

The Kremlin can track the moves of the cryptoruble, which will be launched in the middle of 2019.

Iran have also announced that they are considering creating their own state run cryptocurrency.